In the Back of Your Heart
by Edward Majere
Summary: Akatsuki get a hold of a new secret weapon, Naruto returns to konoha after four years of training and discovers the people and the village itself have changed, and maybe Naruto has a few dark secrets of his own?old memories haunt new adventures and an anc
1. The Beggining of the End

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters... too bad though...

So... this is my first ever fic... I hope you guys will be supportive :P

I'm looking for Beta-readers and I have a small request to ask...

GIVE ME REVIEWS!!!! I want you guys to tell me your opinion, so please leave a review, I take suggestions and criticism well (cocks gun), really.

Hope you enjoy :P

* * *

**The beginning of the end**

A fountain of blood shot from the dead mans throat as the kunai slid through it, leaving a deep cut that almost separated his head from his shoulders. The last guardian of the Temple of Lost Souls collapsed in a heap and didn't get up again. "Too easy" said the red-eyed man as he calmly cleaned the kunai of blood and slid it back into a hidden pocket in his black robe, decorated with fluffy red clouds.

His associate just finished yanking his sword out of a body so mangled that it looked more like a bowl of porridge than a human. "Yeah, didn't even break a sweat."

"Lets go." Said the man with red eyes and slowly walked through the giant double doors, the first in a millennium to enter these doors. A warm glow of orange light greeted the two Akatsuki members as they walked the length of the only corridor.

As they kept going the light got stronger and stronger until eventually the corridor opened into a huge room, it's ceiling so high they couldn't see it, the room was at least half a mile long and twice as wide, in the center stood a pillar, on top of it the objected that emanated the orange light, now so strong that the man with the huge bandaged sword had to cover his eyes with the sleeve of his robe.

The other man didn't even blink those scarlet eyes and advanced towards the pillar.

"We have found it at last. Leader will be most pleased" he reached his hand and took what looked like a handful of orange light, but then he noticed that it was breathing. A maniac laugh escaped the mouth of Uchiha Itachi, a sound that he haven't heard in years, he was a little surprised himself. But he couldn't stop laughing, they finally had it, the final part of their leader's plan, the only thing they needed now was one more Jinchuuriki, the Kyuubi. And then, nothing could stop them.

* * *

"Naruto! Think fast!"

"Ha?" the blonde was suddenly attacked by what looked like a big pink head. He grabbed the girl by the waist and threw her in the air, only to fall into his outstretched arms for a hug.

Sakura giggled "put me down you goof." When her legs touched the ground she looked up at him, still getting used to his new looks.

The twelve-year-old Uzumaki Naruto she grew up with was a short, skinny and most of all an annoying little brat, she now faced a sixteen-year-old Naruto, and he was almost nothing like his old self. He was now much taller than her, his eyes still the amazing blue orbs they've always been, but they were different now, no longer innocent and playful, they had a touch of sorrow in them, a sorrow that appeared after seeing the dark side of the world, death and pain. His hair still consisted of the spiky golden locks, but he let it grow and now it grew beyond his forehead protector and covered half of his eyes, a look Sakura thought was much better then the old style. His shoulders were broad and muscular, his body was not body-builder style, but it was indeed ripped. When she hugged him she felt his very solid chest and defined abs, not to mention the amazing strength in his arms.

"Sakura? Are you alright?" She just realized she's been staring at him for the past five minutes.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She smiled at him and he shot back his huge, sheepish grin, some things never change. "So, there are still things I want to show you."

He just got back to the village three days ago and still hasn't gotten around to see all the changes that took place in the three years he's been out training. He nodded, put on his shoes and followed his pink haired comrade out the door of his small apartment. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the hidden village of Konoha, and Naruto smiled, he sure missed this place.

He jumped across the porch to the roof of the next building, having just spotted someone he hasn't seen in three years, riding a giant dog. "KIBA! You flee-bag!" The dog ninja turned around just in time to receive a face-full of blonde hair in his eyes as the number one most unpredictable ninja in the village crashed on top of Akamaru, the wolf sized dog that Kiba was riding.

"Yuck! I've got hair in my mouth!" Naruto laughed, "just cough out a fur ball you mutt."

Kiba grinned at slapped Naruto on the back "been a long time since I wanted to beat the crap out of someone after seeing him for just 5 seconds, we sure missed you, Uzumaki." Akamaru barked his approval. After a bit of catching up, Kiba waved the blonde away by saying that he was going to see the Hokage to hand in a report, but assured him that he was going to throw a welcome-home party for Naruto soon, and that he'll let him know.

Naruto and Sakura kept walking, running into old friends every now and then. Finally they reached the north part of Konoha, where Naruto asked Sakura if she can give him some time alone and that he'll catch up with her later.

She shrugged and said she's got business to attend to at the hospital, though curious about what Naruto wanted to do.

Naruto waited until he couldn't sense her anymore and then started walking towards the old training fields. He looked at the three poles standing there and sighed. "Sasuke…" his missing comrade was still nowhere to be found, and Naruto still intended on keeping his promise; he was going to get Sasuke back, no matter what.

A distant memory of a waterfall filled his head and the words he's been thinking about for the last three years echoed in his head. "To me… you have become my closest friend."

Naruto kicked the pole "why, Sasuke? Why did you say something like that and then try to kill me?" He kicked the pole again, causing splinters to fly everywhere. He felt tears building up inside of him and his vision blurred, he was just thinking about letting go when…

* * *

"N-N-N-Naruto-kun?" He recognized that small and shy voice and turned around. He gasped; in front of him stood the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Her long black hair was collected in a single ponytail that reached her waist, with two strands falling on each side of her face, her upper body was covered with a baggy coat that was open just enough to suggest about what was underneath it, but her eyes were what caused him to hold his breath. They were almost completely white, the color of lavender, big and shiny, they reflected the sunlight, causing them to sparkle and shine like lavender colored jewels.

"Hinata-chan?" He asked weakly, not believing what he was seeing. She blushed so deeply she looked like a lobster, maybe because she was surprised he remembered her, or maybe because he didn't take his eyes off of her for the last couple of minutes.

He just realized what he was doing and (with some effort) looked the other way "so… how've you been?" Naruto whispered, as if afraid to scare her away.

"OK… and you?" "You know… training… you look really great." He said before he could stop himself. She looked at him for a second, and then turned completely red and fainted with a squeak.

He was there within a fraction of a second, just a blur to the untrained eye; he caught her in his arms, already used to her fainting. He kept staring at her as she lay in his arms, still amazed at how beautiful she was.

* * *

Hinata was sure she was dreaming, she just saw Naruto again; he said she looked good, and she kept herself conscious for five whole minutes with him! And now she was lying in what felt like a very muscular bed, though she knew she was in her room, about to wake up to another dull day.

She opened her eyes; at first she thought she was sleeping outside, because she thought she saw the sky. Then she realized she was gazing up at two amazingly blue eyes that belonged to the person she loved more than anything else in the world.

She quickly closed her eyes, maybe she'll wake up for real this time. "Hinata-chan?" asked the blue eyes "are you alright?"

The Hyuuga opened her eyes again, the blue orbs were still there, this joke was getting rather cruel.

"I'm fine." She sat up, shook her head a bit, but the dream still didn't go away. Hinata turned around to face Naruto, as she saw the concern in his eyes she blushed again and turned to the other direction 'he's really worried about me.' She thought to herself 'don't be stupid girl, of course he is, you just fainted and he's the most caring person in the world.' Her other side said.

She sighed and looked at him, Naruto was much closer now, his blue eyes shining in the morning sun. Her blush deepened even more, she's never been this close to Naruto, he touched his hand to her forehead, feeling her temperature.

"I think you've got a fever or something, you're really hot." He also noticed that her face was redder than the red spiral on his shoulder. "Are you sure everything's OK?" She could only manage to nod once with her head and closed her eyes at his touch.

He smiled and suddenly, before even he realized it, grabbed Hinata and hugged her "it's good seeing you again, I missed you, Hinata-chan." He noticed that she felt very limp in his arms, he sighed. She fainted again.

* * *

Kisame and Itachi entered the dark cave, a huge statue that looked like a giant holding out his hands, his mouth open, the giant had nine eyes. Eight of them were open.

"Do you have it?" said a shadowy figure that appeared in front of them, other shadowy figures stood on the giant's fingers. Itachi formed a few hand seals, a bright orange light illuminated the room, the shadowy figure in front of them held out his hand, the light slowly subdued. In Itachi's hand lay the creature, slowly breathing in and out, lying on top of his ten orange tails.

They could've sworn they heard the leader chuckle as he relived Itachi of his burden, he and Kisame suddenly appeared on two of the giant's fingers as well. The leader looked at the thing that slept peacefully in his hand, something no human has ever seen before, a creature that even myths said wasn't real. And he now belonged to Akatsuki.

Kisame would bet on his sword that he heard the leader laugh, a cold and low laugh, but with real joy in it. "Now, my friends…" The leader looked at them all, revealing his maniac smile, his weird eyes were glowing "we are truly INVINCIBLE!"


	2. Roomies

**  
**

Hinata was having the most wonderful dream. She was talking with Naruto at the training grounds, and he told her that he missed her. She smiled in her sleep. She felt her consciousness tugging at her, trying to wake her up. Hinata frowned, she didn't want to wake up from a dream about Naruto. But she couldn't help it and woke up, still with that sweet smile on her face.

"I love it when you smile like that, Hinata-chan. You should do it more often." She screamed and pulled her covers around her.

"I'm sorry!" Naruto said and waved his arms "you fainted and I brought you back home, but there's no one here so I stayed to see how you were doing. I'm so sorry. I'll leave now." He turned around and started walking towards the door in her room.

"Don't go."

Naruto looked around, staring at Hinata, who looked more shocked than he was. Did I really say that? "I don't want to stay alone." What's happening to me? She was shocked with herself.

Naruto smiled and sat on the edge of her bed, he's so handsome. She stared at him, the way he moved so elegantly, almost cat like. The way his sky blue eyes looked at her, not with pity or disgust, she suddenly realized, he looked at her with… affection?

She's so beautiful Naruto thought to himself, her eyes entranced him, he was a captive in a sea of lavender. Her entire room smelled of lavender. How could he have never taken the time to talk to her, to bond with that amazing creature that was lying on the bed, still holding the covers up to her neck. She's so shy… it's kind of… cute. He thought, she blushed again, probably because he's been staring at her all this time.

An awkward silence grew "do you want anything to drink or to eat?" Naruto asked to break the silence.

"W-w-well… I don't know if you can really find it…" she mumbled, Naruto suddenly realized where he was, at the giant Hyuuga mansion. The only reason he could find Hinata's room was because Neji gave him directions before he dashed off to a mission, leaving them alone in the entire mansion. Which was strange by itself… there were always people in the Hyuuga mansion.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned, Hinata laughed and got out of bed, she was still wearing her clothes. "N-N-Naruto-kun…" he looked up at her. "C-Could you please go outside for a minute so I can ch-ch-change…?" she almost whispered that last part and went crimson.

Naruto stepped outside and looked up and down the corridor, he just realized how huge this place really is. As far as he could see there were more rooms and more rooms, the occasional windows here and there showed a view of the gardens, big flowerbeds crossed with stone walkways for one to take a walk. Little Zen gardens were on the other side of the mansion, complete with fountains and soft grass beds for one to meditate comfortably.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Naruto was so deep in thought that he didn't realize Hinata was standing next to him. She was wearing a brightly colored kimono and fluffy slippers. He smiled "you look really cute like that." She blushed so much that she felt heat waves generating from her, it was only luck that kept her from fainting right there. She took a few deep breaths, no trusting her mouth so she smiled at him shakily and led the way to the kitchens.

* * *

After fixing themselves a little ramen (Naruto got ten bowls and Hinata barely touched hers) and a cup of coffee, they sat down at the main living room, Naruto had the feeling he could fit his entire house there and there would still be room for a hundred people to sit there quite comfortably. They ate at silence for a few minutes until Hinata asked Naruto where has he gone on his training. Naruto started babbling about all the places his been and every enemy he's fought, ramen flying all over the place in some of his more energetic battle descriptions. Hinata sat and giggled through his stories, admiring him more and more after learning about his dangerous adventures with Ero-Sennin.

In the middle of his story about how he's defeated the band of sound ninjas that terrorized some village in Wind Country he stopped and suddenly whipped his head around, Hinata could've sworn she heard sniffing.

"W-what is it?" she looked around too, not knowing what to look for.

"Hinata," his voice was suddenly serious "use your Byakugan and see what's over there." And he pointed to where he was looking.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned the area, it was near the main gate. At first she saw nothing and was about to tell him that when she suddenly noticed movement. Somebody just jumped over the wall and into the house.

"Someone just entered the house." Hinata said. She looked around to talk to Naruto, but he was already gone. She activated the Byakugan and ran after him. He's so fast! She said to herself as she tried to keep up, Naruto has already reached the burglar by the time she got out of the house, and then he disappeared.

"I can't believe my luck." The burglar murmured to himself as he landed heavily on his feet on the other side of the wall "the entire clan left for a month for a reunion with their distant family from Hill Country. I'm going to have the time of my life." As he thought that an orange-black blur appeared above him and introduced his heel to the burglars face, not so politely.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata waved at him, he waved back and smiled. The burglar's nose was broken, and a few of his teeth now decorated Naruto's pants.

"I don't think he's going to break into people's homes anytime soon." Naruto grinned. "By the way… I heard him say that your entire clan left for a month?"

Hinata twiddled her fingers and nodded at the ground.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Naruto blinked at her, he hasn't seen her to that with her fingers for a long time.

"B-B-Because I-I didn't want to go to H-Hill country with them…" She blushed. "I-I wanted to stay here and train."

Naruto blinked "so you have the entire mansion to yourself for a month?"

She nodded and continued playing with her fingers and staring at the ground.

"Well… maybe I'll stop by sometime and we'll have a party or something." He smirked at her.

Her eyes opened wide "p-p-party?"

He winked and then smacked himself on the head so suddenly he cause Hinata to wince "I forgot I had plans with Sakura!" he then jumped over the wall "see you later Hinata-chan!"

Hinata slumped against the wall, breathing heavily. He's so amazing… she kept saying that to herself. And you didn't faint this time either! You go girl! She giggled a little at her own joke and got back inside the house, blue eyes filling her vision.

* * *

Naruto was flying on rooftops in Konoha with ease, humming to himself. He wondered why he was in such a good mood, all he did was spend a day with Hinata. Though he always liked her, he still wondered about the blushes and fainting… something was weird about that girl.

Something caught his attention, sitting on a rooftop, chewing a straw and gazing at clouds was none other than Nara Shikamaru, his old classmate.

"Yo! Shikamaru!" the blonde teen waved happily at his lazy friend, smirking like an idiot.

"Would you turn that smile off?" The jounin said while raising his hand (with some effort) to cover his eyes "you're blinding me, dumbass." Naruto laughed, some things really never change.

"So you came back after training for three and a half years… and now you want to throw a party?" Shikamaru sighed "how troublesome."

"I figured that if I wait around for you guys to throw a party I'd wait another three years." Naruto punched him in the shoulder "so I relived you of that responsibility." Though he knew his lazy friend weren't even thinking about stuff like that, maybe if he saw a party-shaped cloud.

Naruto kept rambling on for about ten minutes about all the things he did while training with the Frog-Hermit and he didn't notice that Shikamaru fell asleep. Naruto sighed, then got up, patted Shikamaru on the shoulder and ran to the next roof.

Shikamaru opened one eye, watched as the blonde faded into the distance, squirmed a little until he was comfortable again and admired the fluffy outline of a particularly large, grey cloud "it looks like it's going to rain. How troublesome." He mumbled to himself.

* * *

Naruto was getting closer to his apartment with the idea of an afternoon nap on his mind, when he smelled smoke "wonder what's on the grill." He said, and then laughed at his own joke.

He continued jumping and the smell got stronger, and then he saw it. From his house came clouds of black smoke, the glasses were shattered and the porch just collapsed as he got there. Konoha's special fire-fighting ninjas were already there and they were putting out the fire with water jutsus.

"What the hell happened here?" Naruto asked the nearest ninja he found, his face was completely covered behind a mask and there was a shining burn scar where his left ear used to be.

"We think that a gas line broke and blew up the place. Do you know who lives here?" The earless shinobi asked him.

"I live here!" Naruto yelled at him.

"Ah… well… do you have some place to stay? It's going to take some time to fix this place." The fire fighter asked while packing up his gear and calling the other ninjas out, the fire had died by this point.

"I guess I can find some place to stay…" Naruto sighed. "Did you manage to salvage anything?"

"I'm afraid not, everything was burned down. I'm sorry, have a nice day." The ninjas performed a few hand seals and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto stared at where the ninja had been standing just a second ago "Nice day? Is he kidding me?" He kicked a rock and sat down heavily… now what?

* * *

"I-I'm coming!" she yelled, but the doorbell kept on ringing, maybe the thunders blocked out her voice. "I'm coming!" Hinata rushed through the huge family mansion, she has just been training when the gong that informed everyone within the mansion that someone was at the front door went off. She wasn't expecting anyone so she was wearing a loose tank top and sweat pants that were a little too small.

She opened the door, maybe it was Tenten, she dropped by every now and then. As she looked at the person standing there she thought I don't remember Ten being this tall. And then she realized it wasn't Tenten at all. In front of her stood none other than Uzumaki Naruto, his wet hair clinging to the side of his face, his wet shirt sticking to his body, reveals much-defined chest and abdomen muscles. "Hey, Hinata-chan, I kind of need a favor."

* * *

"And so," he finished at the living room after a hot cup of tea "my house burned down and I have no place else to go, I know it's a burden, but believe me, I tried everywhere else. But can I stay here for a little while with you, please?" He added his cutest puppy-eyed look, little did he know that this actually worked on Hinata.

Hinata couldn't breath, even in her wildest dreams she couldn't hope for something like this to happen. The love of her life was here, asking to move in with her, when her entire clan wasn't around to get in the way.

"O-o-of course y-you can stay, N-Naruto-kun." She couldn't believe herself when the words stuttered themselves out of her mouth. She immediately blushed to her hair roots and began twiddling her index fingers.

* * *

"C'mon Hinata, get up, we're not done yet." It was a week after Naruto moved in with Hinata, as a way of paying her back he decided he's going to help her train. Maybe he was a little too rough on her, though she told him she wanted him to be harder on her, but he refused.

He's too fast, Hinata thought to herself as she got up after being knocked down for who knows how many times. And she knew he wasn't even trying, she herself were dripping sweat and breathing very hard. She's been training for the last three years harder than ever, but she was nothing compared to him.

During her musings, her blonde trainer suddenly disappeared and reappeared high above her, aiming a flying kick at her. She quickly rolled and spun around like a top, her leg outstretched in the hopes of knocking him off his feet, but she hit nothing but air.

Hinata got up in her fighting stance and looked around, she knew he was probably running around her in circles, too fast for her to see. He was truly amazing. She was suddenly tackled and knocked into the air, before she knew it, he was sitting on top of her and holding her arms to her sides. Hinata quickly concentrated chakra into her feet and pushed as hard as she could, so they reversed and she was now sitting on top of him.

They were both breathing hard now, not exactly because of the physical effort.

Hinata just realized where she was, and she blushed so much she was sure her entire body was red. Naruto smiled a nervous smile, though he was actually petrified.

Ever since he moved to the Hyuuga mansion he's experienced some strange things he's never felt before. Every time he saw Hinata, for example, a knot would form in his stomach, like someone was making a rope with his bowls. Every time he accidentally touched her he would get a warm feeling in his stomach that has nothing to do with the twenty bowls of ramen he had earlier.

He was considering going to old lady Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage knew about every disease known to mankind, so he was pretty sure she could fix him. In the meantime he was trying to ignore the butterflies that flapped inside of him and the warm nervousness that attacked him whenever he saw the lavender-eyed heiress.

Oh gods, I'm sitting on top of Naruto. Hinata could barely breath, but she didn't want to get up, ever. Her arms that were pinning his to the ground were shaking so much that they slipped from his hands and she fell face first into his chest.

Naruto didn't know what he was doing, but his arms instinctively rose from the floor, and wrapped themselves around Hinata, completely ignoring the order his mind sent them. "Are you OK?" He whispered softly.

"I-I-I-I-I," was all she could manage. Hinata was blushing so much she was sure Naruto was beginning to warm up as well because of her. She was breathing very fast and shallow, she wouldn't open her eyes, fearing she would wake up.

Naruto smiled, and gently put her chin between his thumb and index finger. He slowly raised her head and she opened her eyes.  
Lavender met blue and they were captive to each other's eyes.

Hinata didn't know how long she just lay on top of him, staring into his amazingly blue eyes. Eventually he blinked, and the magic broke. Hinata suddenly realized what she was doing "s-sorry!" she suddenly buried herself in his chest, wishing she could go through in and merge with the floor.

"What's wrong? Did I say something?" Naruto looked questionably at her.

"No… no… it's just stupid little me." She whispered that last part to herself, but the blonde heard her nonetheless.

* * *

What can I do about this low self-esteem of hers?

"Hinata-chan, can you help me out with something?"

She looked up, his sky blue eyes had a touch of sadness in them that she's rarely seen before. "S-s-sure, N-Naruto-kun. What is it?"

He sighed, this had to be good, "I… I think that I'm in love… but I don't know if she likes me back."

Hinata felt her heart somewhere near her toes… she knew it was too good to be true, and she was beginning to think he actually liked her back.

Naruto smiled on the inside, his plan was to tell her that he loved her, as a joke of course, and when she tells him she doesn't feel the same way no harm will be done and she will start thinking that guys can fall for her. It was absolutely brilliant.

He looked at her big bright eyes, semi covered by a few strands of hair. Her blushed cheeks paled a little, she was so cute when she blushed. He was getting that warm pressure in his stomach again, he must be really sick.

Could it be Sakura? I knew he always had a crush on her… what can I do? Maybe I should just tell him how I feel…  
"N-N-Naruto-kun. I-I-I…"

GONG! The doorbell went off.

"That must be Kiba and all the others, let's pick this up later, K?"

Hinata nodded and twiddled her fingers, she was just about to confess her feeling. What if she didn't have the courage to do it again?

* * *

Naruto raced to the door and opened it with a huge grin. In front of him stood Kiba, Shino almost invisible in his huge coat that covered every part of him besides his shining glasses, Sakura who was wearing a new pink mini skirt and high boots complete with a fluffy red top. And Rock Lee, the taijitsu expert was also there, wearing the same tight green training suit with orange leg warmers only that he was also wearing a chuunin vest with the flyer open. He looked just like his sensei.

They spent the whole night talking and laughing and mostly catching up with Naruto and asking him what he's been doing in his training. Some stories made Lee very anxious ("Your youthful spirit has become stronger than ever, Naruto-kun! May we have the chance to fight and celebrate out youth once again?"), and some even made Shino giggle. At the end of the night Kiba suddenly drew a bottle of sake from out of nowhere, and they made a toast.

"To life" said Shino.  
"To peace" said Sakura  
"To alcohol!" said the slightly drunken Kiba.  
"To youth!!" shouted Lee and raised his glass of water.  
"To love" whispered Hinata and blushed as she peeked at Naruto, who didn't notice.  
"To friendship!" said Naruto, very serious all of a sudden. Everyone downed their drinks, and after ten minutes Naruto and Hinata were alone once again.

"I think I'm gonna go to bed." Said Naruto, and Hinata nodded as she went to her bedroom as well. Naruto was only two rooms down the hall, she could hear him snore after a couple of minutes.  
She lay on her bed and sighed.

* * *

A single tear burned it's way down her face and landed on her pillow. 


	3. Dreams

_Naruto wiped a trickle of blood from his lower lip as he got up, his legs were trembling a bit. He sighed and looked up, the ground he was standing on was completely destroyed, burn marks were everywhere and long cracks criss-crossed everywhere._

_He looked around at his comrades lying around in various states of injuries, some lying at a pool of their own blood. Neji was in a shielding position over Ten-Ten's body, ready to protect her even though he was unconscious. _

_Lee was still moaning a bit, his legs were bent in odd angles. The blonde shinobi could just make out Sakura's form, smashed half way into a large rock._

_Naruto couldn't even bring himself to look to his left, he looked up to the sky instead. But it wasn't the normal shade the sky should have; the sky was blood red and angry yellow lightning flashed across it every now and then. He chuckled and then looked straight ahead, to the shadow of the enormous ten-tailed beast advancing slowly towards him._

_His left hand, covered in weird looking runes, covered his eyes. When he lowered it his eyes suddenly changed, the red became black, and the cat like slit-pupil turned white and slanted to the side and then another one appeared, so that they formed a kind of an X in the middle of the black eye, which started to burn, black flames shot from his eyes and singed his eyebrows._

_The giant beast stopped it's steady pacing and opened its mouth, eight of its tails burned in a different colored flame, the ones to the far left and right, though, were bright orange. A huge sphere of pure chakra formed in the colossus mouth._

_Naruto only looked at it and smiled as the monster let loose its attack._

* * *

Hinata woke up with a scream, she's just had a terrible nightmare, and she thought Naruto was involved in it somehow. She tried to remember, but the details slipped away from her, it was like trying to hold water in her bare hands. She realized she was still screaming and clasped her hands to her mouth.

"What is it?" Naruto smashed through the door, awaken by her screams, he ran as fast as he could to her room.

He tripped over a slipper and his momentum carried him still, so he flew to the bed and crashed on top of Hinata, who found this a good time to resume her screaming.

Naruto rubbed his head where he smashed it against Hinata's shoulder and repeated "what is it? What's with the screaming?"

"Oh, Naruto, I was having the most horrible nightmare – " she just realized he was lying on top of her, his face inches from her own, she was redder than a brick wall in a matter of seconds and buried her face beneath the covers.

The blonde just noticed where he was, the warm bubbling in his stomach was almost painful this time. He felt his throat starting to spasm and he had trouble breathing, his heart was beating so hard and so fast he was sure Hinata can hear it.

Something came over him, something he couldn't explain. He gently pulled Hinata's covers away from her shaking hands "why would you want to hide such a beautiful face?" He said with a voice that wasn't his own, it was soft and low and it was the first time he's heard it

Hinata just froze, looking in his handsome face for what looked like hours, 'was he talking about me?' she kept thinking to herself. He picked her up and hugged her close to him.

Hinata didn't know what to think, what to do, she just lay limp in his arms, her heart stopped long ago. She felt like she was melting in his arms, time stopped and then returned to normal savagely as he put her down.

"It was only a bad dream," Naruto whispered in her ear "Don't let it get to you."

He got up, smiled at her and left the room.

Hinata released the breath she didn't realized she was holding, sank back in the pillows and sighed, all thoughts of the dream melted in front of those glittering blue eyes and those muscular arms.

* * *

"Hinata, wake up, now!" It was a week after she had the dream, and she was having a very nice one right now about being picked up by a blonde shinobi and hugged all night long. Her ninja instincts, though, had other things planned for her as her eyes flew open, her body responded to the panicked voice she heard before her brain did. The Hyuuga got up, dressed herself in a flash, strapped her equipment pouch on and ran out of the room before her mind could finish waking up.

"What happened?" She asked practically no one and kept running to the door.

"Tsunade summoned all available ninjas to her office, sounds pretty big," said the blonde blur that joined her halfway to the front gate.

They were in front of the Hokage's office two minutes after that, other ninjas were already there and more were pouring in from all directions. When they have all assembled the Godaime Hokage stepped in front of them and wasted no time with getting them up to date.

"There has been an infiltration." She said rather calmly, though her clenched fist gave her away. "The southern patrol unit reports that four platoons have crossed the border."

Some murmurs broke all along the assembled ninja ranks. One of them spoke aloud "When did this happen?"

"About half an hour ago," replied the large breasted Hokage, apparently expecting the question.

"Why didn't the border patrol stop them? They're certainly capable of handling four platoons, and while we're at it, who exactly were these ninjas that infiltrated the fire country? Are we in a state of war with some other village?"

The Hokage looked around before she answered, Shikamaru, she should've known.

"The enemies had no identification marks on them, and they belong to no village we know of. The survivors from the border guard said they were caught off guard, this will never happen again. They are now headed in the direction of the village." She quietly said, though everyone heard her. Everyone had the same thought on their mind, 'survivors?'

Looking around, the snail tamer saw their doubt and stomped the ground hard, sending shockwaves in every direction.

"You will now go and show these bastards that no one will make fun of Konoha! You will divide in teams of fives, go and destroy those idiots who chose just the wrong village to mess with!" She shouted.

All as one shouted back "Yes, Hokage-Sama!" and disappeared in a blur of speed.

Naruto and Hinata were joined by Lee, Neji and Ten-Ten as they jumped over the huge wall the circled the village and into the woods. "Why teams of five, though?" Asked Ten-Ten, scrolls and various weapons jumping at her sides as she ran.

"They used to divide in teams of five during the Great War, in Tsunade's time, I guess she thinks these guys can pose a real threat to us." The Hyuuga genius, Neji, said calmly, his Byakugan scanning all around them for traces of the enemy.

"Let the spirit of youth destroy those who wish to harm us!" Yelled the Beautiful green Beast of Konoha, speeding up and opening a gap between him and his comrades.

"Lee! Slow down you worthless sack of muscle!" Yelled Ten-Ten "we need to stay together!"

"Do not worry for me, fair lady! For I am powered by the springtime of youth! No foe can harm me while I am –"

The ground opened up beneath him and giant roots grabbed him by the feet, swung him around and slammed him into a tree.

"Lee!" But they couldn't spare the time to check up on him, they were suddenly surrounded by four ninjas, all wearing long plain black robes that covered every bit of them, they were all at the same height and wore the same mask over their faces.

Naruto barely had time to shout out an insult when all four of them moved as one, suddenly appearing before each of them.

Naruto saw his attackers kick a mile away and he dodged it easily, but saw Hinata flying at the same time, one of the ninjas jumping after her to finish the job.

"Hinata-Chan!" he shouted but barely dodged the kunai that scratched his cheek, he just needed to finish this guy as fast as possible.

"Kage bunshin no Jutsu!" He shouted and made a seal; ten Narutos appeared in a cloud of white smoke that partly hid them. Three of them jumped at the black robed ninja who destroyed them all in a single circular motion.

"Rasengan!" Yelled a Naruto, aiming the huge, spinning, charka ball in his hand at the ninja who jumped back, trying to get away. The Naruto kept chasing him, the ninja backed until he crashed into a tree. The Rasengan wielding Naruto instantly vanished, releasing more smoke that blinded the intruder.

The dark ninja was panting slightly, he has never seen that kind of Jutsu before, he was looking in every direction, looking for the weird blonde kid. What he didn't notice was that the tree he was leaning against suddenly came to life, he only saw it when the branches wrapped around his throat and throttled him.

"Nature Hangman no Jutsu" said Naruto who appeared beside him out of the ground, watched him turn purple and then slopped against the tree, and didn't move again.

All Neji could do was to dodge his foes attacks, seemingly cornered. He was then joined by Ten-Ten, who was doing the same thing with her opponent.

"Are you bored already?" She asked Neji.

"A bit." He winked.

Ten-Ten drew a scroll, then next thing anyone knew there was a big puff of smoke and a huge collection of weapons were floating in the air about two feet above her.

"You're up, big boy." She winked and jumped back.

Neji jumped in the middle of the floating weapons and started spinning "Kaiten!" he shouted as a giant sphere of energy surrounded him, the weapons seemed to stick to it and served as the outer layer. So that it looked like a tornado of sharp metallic objects.

This took about five seconds. The ninjas were hit before they even knew what happened, blood sprayed everywhere and two mangled bodies flew out of the Kaiten circle.

"Never fails." The brown haired weapons master smirked and admired her weapons. Neji sighed.

* * *

Hinata spat blood and got up just in time to avoid a kick sent by her attacker, which crashed the rock she was just leaning against.

"Give up, little girl, and I might kill you quickly, it won't even hurt." She heard a bored tone, was he underestimating her?

He leaped for another jump kick, but this time she was ready and swirled around in place, her hands moved so fast that no one could see them. For most eyes, she just spun around on the spot and made a pretty little swirling motion with her hands.

"What the hell was that supposed to be?" Her attacker laughed at her.

She straightened, turned off her Byakugan, brushed a little dust from her shoulder and walked away calmly.

"Oi! Don't you dare turn your back on me!" he made as if to chase after her, but suddenly gasped and fell to his knees, coughing blood. He died before he could even swear and wonder what that little girl did to him.

But before Hinata could walk more than ten steps a shadow covered the sun, she looked up and saw another ninja just a few feet from her head. She had just enough time to enter a fighting stance, but a green and orange blur carried the surprised attacker faster than the eye could follow, he crashed into a tree so hard that it split in two and he kept flying until he hit another tree. Lee then stomped on his ribs, a very unpleasant crack echoed around them.

"Don't ever underestimate the power of youth!" The taijitsu master shouted, he then looked at Hinata and gave her his nice guy pose, his teeth shining stupidly.

"Hinata!" Naruto landed beside her, "are you OK? I was worried about you."

Hinata blushed "Y-y-you were w-worried about me, N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled and hugged her again, though he didn't know why he did "of course I was, be more careful next time, will ya?"

She couldn't even make herself stutter, she just stood slumped in his arms, eyes closed, breathing hard.

"Ah, young love." Lee said sage-like "what better way to celebrate the springtime of – "

He couldn't finish the sentence due to a shoe jammed in his mouth.

"Will you shut it already?" Ten-Ten sighed, "You'll never learn, ha?"

"Whadiry dou?" was all he could mumble through the shoe.

* * *

Soon after they were heading back to the village, all the other teams already there.

And all Hinata could think about while they were racing back to Konoha to report about their battle was what it felt like to be in his arms. His warm body pressed against hers, all pain and fear forgotten. Now she looked at him, running next to Lee and exchanging battle stories.

'It must have been a dream.'


	4. Golden moments

A\N: Sorry this one took so long, but I've been a little busy. I promise the next chapter will be up very soon and... enjoy.

* * *

"Did everything go as plan?" Asked the blurry shadow, he looked almost like a hologram, his voice had a distant quality to it.

"Yes, Leader, the Konoha fools didn't suspect a thing, they only think another village tried to invade their precious Fire Country." Answered a more solid shadow, his voice echoed in the vast cave, another shadow sniggered behind his back.

"And did we acquire what we needed?" Asked the blurry shadow, he sounded almost anxious.

The sniggering shadow stepped forward and held out his palm, revealing a rather shiny flower surrounded by a sphere of chakra. "It should take about a year until we can use it, this here is just on its way to the lab so the boys can start working on it."

The blurry form disappeared with a hollow smile, not saying a word.

"Have you ever seen the leader so happy?" Asked the shadow that has just finished making a few hand seals, the strange flower disappeared.

"No." Answered his partner, his red eyes glowing in the dark.

"And what do we do about the ninjas we lost in Fire Country?" Asked the second shadow while tapping the huge sword strapped to his back.

"Who cares, they were only gennin." Answered the red eyed one and vanished with a puff of smoke.

His partner shrugged and vanished too, his last giggle still echoing in the cave.

* * *

Hinata just woke up from another terrible dream, she was drenched in sweat and shaking. It was the third dream she had that made her wake up shaking, but at least she didn't scream this time, she felt bad after the second time when Naruto made a hole in her door when he came to check what happened to her.

She was tempted to scream for a second just for him to come to her rescue, but thought better of it. The dreams were starting to scare her, she could never what happened in them but she somehow knew they were all the same dream and she didn't like that.

She checked her clock and gasped, it was noon already and she was still in bed!

"Stupid lazy girl." She mumbled to herself as she dressed and got out of her room, still mumbling. Suddenly, the floor shook and a giant BOOM echoed around the house. Not thinking, Hinata dashed to the back yard to see what's happened.

Hinata just stepped out of the back door and jumped back in to avoid the twenty or so Narutos that smashed to the side of the house and a big cloud of white smoke obscured her vision for a second, she got out just as it cleared and smiled.

Naruto was facing a hundred or so copies of himself in a fight stance, just as they charged.

He leaped on the first one with a battle cry, his right punch seemingly too hard and carried him through the bunshin and he went flying. Two others jumped from either side of Naruto but he opened his palm and stood on one hand, his legs shooting to both sides and taking out the clones.

Another one was gliding on the ground, aiming for the hand that held the original Naruto. The blonde, with a spectacular show of strength, jumped on one hand and flipped over in the air, landing on the Naruto that tried to tackle him.

Hinata watch the hyperactive ninja systematically beat the hell out of his clones and it was not until he stood alone in the middle of the garden that he noticed her.

"Hinata! How long have you been watching me?" He gasped, just realizing he was shirtless.

Though Hinata didn't fail to notice his minimum clothing long ago she said with as little stuttering as she could "Not long, N-Naruto-kun, you've really improved."

He grinned "all these years of intense training didn't go to waste, ha?" He then winked and suddenly disappeared in a blur of speed and a cloud of dust swirled all around Hinata. She was on the ground before she knew it, her arms pinned to her sides, Naruto breathing hard on top of her.

Naruto was a bit confused; he didn't quite plan this move through. All he wanted to do was to scare Hinata a bit and maybe have a mock battle with her. He did not intend to suddenly crush her beneath him, and he certainly didn't expect to enjoy this.

"I'm sorry." He said and released her arms, he started to get up, but something stopped him.

"N-Naruto-Kun… there's something I-I've been meaning to tell you for a long time now." Hinata was actually shaking when she said it, not believing that she finally got it out, she couldn't stop. "I-I-I have always admired you for being so strong and confident and…" she must go on, it's too late to stop now.

"And I love you."

His own voice surprised when he said it, Narutos heart was beating so hard he could feel the necklace Tsunade gave him bounce against his chest. Everything made sense to him now, he wasn't sick, he was in love with Hinata. That sweet, innocent girl had loved him for so long but couldn't say it, which was just what he needed to realize that he felt the same. Naruto felt so stupid, he could he not have noticed? How could he mistake her constant blushing and fainting as pure shyness when it was love?

The Hyuuga's opal eyes were wide enough to swallow the blonde they were staring at. He loved her? How could he? She was just an overly shy and strange girl who wasn't attractive at all, at least in her opinion.

"N-N-Naruto-" she couldn't finish what she started to say due to the fact that there were a pair of lips pressed against hers, her eyes went even wider, and then closed with a sigh of huge relief and joy as she returned the kiss she had not dared even dream of for so long.

They broke the kiss eventually for lack of air. Hinata wouldn't open her eyes, if this was a dream she didn't want to wake up, ever.

"Open your eyes, gorgeous." Said a deep voice very close to her neck, the hot air sent shivers down her spine and she twitched a little.

"No." She said in a childish voice, she shrugged and crossed her arms on her chest.

"Oh well, then I guess I'm just gonna have some fun then." The voice said again, a little mischievously. Then Naruto began to implement all the lessons that Ero-Sennin had passed on to him, maybe it wouldn't all go to waste.

Hinata gasped as a shockwave was sent through her body as the blonde kissed her collar bones ever so gently, his lips almost floating above them. He breathed again, forcing another gasp out of the petite girl. He then moved on to kissing her just underneath the jaw and advanced downwards slowly to her shoulders, registering every pant and twitch that his love was giving him.

Finally, when she couldn't take it anymore, Hinata panted "OK, you win, just stop it, please." And she opened her ever so bright eyes, a reddish hue to them, as if she was about to cry.

Naruto felt a bit disappointed when she told him to stop, but also scared that he made her cry. "I'm so sorry, Hinata-Chan, I didn't mean to hurt you or-" his words were cut by the lips that pressed against his. Their kiss was deeper this time, longer, both enjoying the feeling of being pressed against each other.

"I love you, Naruto-Kun." Hinata said the words that were on the tip of her tongue for years.

"I love you, Hinata." He mumbled in return and picked her up from the ground "we don't want to roll around in dirt all day, do we?" He winked at the girl in his arms and she giggled.

* * *

"Say, Naruto-Kun… what's up with your apartment?"

Naruto opened his eyes and frowned at the ceiling, as if counting. Hinata giggled when she saw him frown, trying to remember, and she snuggled closer against his chest. They were both lying on the couch in the main guest room, watching some stupid romantic movie.

"I think the guy from the insurance company said it will be done next week. Why do you ask, are you sick of me already?" He said a little teasingly, and poked her in the ribs.

She squirmed a bit "well… actually… my family is coming back tomorrow… and my father would freak out if he saw you here."

"Good point…" Naruto scratched his head "I guess I can go crash at Shikamaru's… but I'll miss you." He pressed her against his chest and she wrapped her arms around him, telling him without words that she'll miss him too.

* * *

"Stupid Hyuugas… have to come back just when everything was going so well." Naruto mumbled to himself as he threw things into his bag, he didn't have much since most of his stuff were lost in the fire. He was done packing in about five minutes, not bad at all for a month's worth of throwing things around the huge mansion.

He looked around the room, thinking about all the things that happened in the last month, especially the last few days, if only he had known Hinata loved him earlier… he could have made much better use of his time here.

Small white hands covered his eyes and the smell of lavender suddenly washed over him, he sighed and turned around to face his love.

Hinata was wearing one of his black shirts with the red spiral on the front, it was so big on her that it almost reached her knees. At first it looked like she was wearing nothing to cover her lower region, the look of her strong, well formed legs sent hot waves through Naruto and he gulped.

"N-Naruto-Kun… I was h-hoping we could spend o-one last night together..?" She blushed to her very core and had to clench her fists to stop her fingers from twiddling, it took every ounce of courage she had just to dress up like that and say those words.

The blonde noticed she had a hard time and made the decision for her; he scooped her in his arms and practically threw her on the bed. She looked a little shocked at first but relaxed and made herself comfortable on the bed, taking all the space her slender form allowed her to.

"But… there's no room left for me." Even though she didn't take as much as half of the bed Naruto played along with her, "oh well… I'll just improvise then."

He took off his shirt and, with a mischievous grin, leaped on the bed and on top of the slender girl. She screamed and tried to fight him, but only half heartedly, he grabbed her arms and pinned them to the bed. She squealed and tried the break free, but he was stronger, he held both her hands in one big palm and tickled her ribs with the other one.

"No! Stop it please!" she twisted and laughed at the same time, trying to free her arms. When she could barely breath from laughter he stopped and kissed her, he planned for only a little kiss, to calm her down. But she had other plans.

Hinata decided it was time to take control of this situation, she released her arms and threw the blonde to the side, before he had time to react she had already saddled him, and now he was the one who was pinned down.

He didn't even have time to be shocked before their lips met again, stronger this time, passion exploding inside him, he wrapped his arms around her and crushed her against him. She took this as a stimulant and kissed him even harder.

His tongue licked her bottom lip, asking permission to enter; she obliged and parted her lips. They explored each other's mouths, savoring the taste.

Naruto couldn't control himself, though he thought this might be a bad idea, he had to. His right hand continued to keep a firm grip on Hinata but his left went exploring, he slowly lifted the part of the shirt that was covering her thighs and he stroked them, ever so gently.

Hinata was so lost in the kissing that she didn't even notice what he was doing, she felt like she was melting in his arms. She had dreamed of kissing him like this for so long, it didn't feel real at all, and she let herself enjoy the dream. Suddenly, a wave of Goosebumps spread from her right leg to her back and she shivered, she had just noticed that he was touching her. His fingers were so gentle that it drove her mad, he barely even touched her, stroking her thigh, the back of her knee and downwards again.

Naruto felt her shiver and moan and he smiled to himself, time to regain control. He grabbed her slender waist and spun her around, so that now he was lying on top of her. Her eyes widened but he didn't give her time to respond, he kissed her lips once more, then moved downwards, her chin, her neck, shoulders and ears were his favorite targets.

Hinata gasped, she didn't know he could make her feel such things, everywhere his lips touched hot waves erupted and spread to her entire body, making her shiver and moan. At the same time his left hand never stopped what she was doing and she know moved upwards, stroking her lower back and her sides, still with that maddening gentle touch of his. It was almost too much for her, she also registered a growing wetness between her legs, but couldn't pay much thought to it right now since his lips returned to their home base and they were kissing again, his tongue exploring her mouth and she was doing the same. His hand never stopping, his fingers so gentle, his lips so soft, this was truly the best dream she'd ever had.

* * *

Sunlight hit Hinata's face and she tried to turn to the other side, but something was holding her, she wondered what and opened her eyes. She just noticed that her head was slowly rising and dropping down every few seconds, since when did her bed breath? She opened her eyes slowly and blinked a few times in the face of the morning sun. The Hyuuga heiress slowly raised her head and noticed that what she was lying on wasn't a bed, it was a muscular and tanned chest, her eyes continued upwards and she smiled. Naruto was sleeping peacefully, the sun making his golden spikes burn gold and his face looked like it was carved from marble, like a statue of some ancient god.

Hinata smiled and rested her head against his chest, his hand instinctively held her close to him and she was so relaxed and warm, she'll just nap for a couple more minutes, what could possibly happen?

* * *

"Er… Hinata?" she felt the vibrations of his voice from his chest and groaned "just a few more minutes…"

"But… it's already noon."

This woke her up instantly, she jumped from the bed and started flailing her arms "they'll be here any minute! You have to go!" She threw him a shirt and he put it on in a flash, grabbed his bag and ran to the window.

"Wait!" She ran to him and kissed him, he grinned and jumped from the window, she just saw him land lighter than a cat and jump over the wall and then he disappeared around the corner.

* * *

"Thanks for letting me stay here, you guys." Naruto slapped the lazy Shikamaru on the back and grinned at Chouji, their small apartment was no where near the gigantic Hyuuga mansion, but it still was better than his old place. It was the next morning and he had just finished serving his friends the breakfast he had prepared as a thank you gesture. Of course it was all gone a minute after Chouji sat down, but Shikamaru thanked him anyway and got up to make himself some coffee.

There was a ring at the door and Naruto got up to open it, telling his roomies to sit back and relax. He opened the door with a grin "Cho-Shika-Naru residence, may I be of service to you?"

Hinata was at the door, tears in her eyes. "What happened?" Naruto immediately pulled her into a hug and she clutched to him desperately.

"They're not back yet."


	5. Laughing stars

"They're not back yet."

Naruto blinked at her, not fully understanding "who's not back yet?"

"My family! My clan!" Hinata yelled and started sobbing into his shoulder.

"Well, maybe they're just late? It's not like it can't happen, a wagon can break, someone could have been injured, it doesn't mean anything yet." Naruto said while patting her hair.

"You d-d-don't understand." Hinata said between hiccoughs and sniffed. "My father hates nothing more than b-b-being l-late. He would never come home late."

Naruto shushed her and made her a strong cup of tea, after she calmed down a bit they went to the Hokage's office together to ask her if there's been any messages from the Hyuugas.

* * *

"They're late, I know." Tsunade didn't even look up from her papers, she waved at them to sit down and signed the mission details she was holding. When she looked up she looked so tired that Naruto was almost sure that the illusion that kept her looking young failed and he was staring at a fifty year old woman.

Tsunade noticed the shock in his eyes "it's not an easy job being Hokage, you know." She winked at him and then turned to Hinata "I'm aware that your father has never been late in his life, and I'm not taking this lightly, but it could be just a technical difficulty or an accident at the worst case. Let's give them another day and then we'll send a messenger to see what's going on."

Hinata couldn't argue with that argument and nodded quietly, Naruto led her outside the door and told her he'll catch with her in a sec. The blonde sat down in front of the Hokage and just stared at her, Tsunade nodded and made a few hand seals, the air around the vibrated for a second and then went back to normal.

"What I didn't tell Hinata," Tsunade sighed "is that the chances of the Hyuuga clan having a technical problem are less than zero, and I am worried." She shook her head "damn Hiashi, what a dumb idea it was to take the entire clan on a stupid errand like that. But as I said, let's give them another day and then we can panic."

* * *

It was two days after that when Hinata and Neji burst into the Hokage's

Office, Neji kicked the door so hard that the hinges broke and it fell to the floor. The Hyuugas didn't even notice, they stepped over the door and stared at the Tsunade, their eyes talking of rage and killing intent.

_The girl's been spending too much time with Naruto _the blonde thought to herself as she kept herself from tackling the two kids and beating the snot out of them. "HOW DARE YOU?!" she screamed at them "This is the Hokage's office and you will respect that, dammit!" She shouted at them.

Neji flinched against the sight of the vain pumping in her forehead but Hinata didn't even blink "we're going out to find them." Was all she said and turned to walk out of the office.

"Now wait here just a goddamned second!" Tsunade yelled at her "you can't just waltz out of the village into a potential ambush like that. I've just finished assembling the team that will be taking this case. They should be here any second now."

Just then Rock Lee, Sakura, Ten-Ten and Naruto stepped over the broken door, not at all surprised that it was smashed on the floor, Naruto immediately placed a supporting arm on Hinata's shoulder.

"As you are the only available ninjas in the village I have no choice but to send you six. You will advance eastward and report to me about everything unusual you find. You may leave when you are done… preparing…" The last part was not necessary as they all had their packs strapped to their backs and they looked as if the only thing keeping them their was the fear of what Tsunade will do to them if they walk out when she's talking. She waved wearily at them and they were gone in a flash.

* * *

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, sometimes on the road and sometimes flying from tree to tree, Hinata and Neji always in the lead. Every call of "Slow down!" or "Don't break formation!" that was always shot at them from the rear always granted the shouter a look that could cut through trees.

It wasn't until night has already fallen and lee and Naruto tackled Neji that they stopped to make camp. Everyone was exhausted and most fell asleep immediately. Naruto thought about saying something to Hinata, anything to make her feel better, it was killing him to see her like this. But he decided that she probably need some time to herself and that he would probably just upset her if he bothered her now. He spread his sleeping bag on the ground and stared at the starry skies._Do the stars mock us by being so bright?_ He thought to himself and frowned at them in return.

* * *

Hinata's slim form only took about half of the sleeping bag and she looked at the empty half, wishing her love was there. _Why didn't he talk to me all day? Maybe he's angry at me? _She chewed her fingernails, what could she have done to upset him? _You stupid girl… you always screw it up, now he hates you. _She wished he was there beside her, she could use his strong touch. _Are the stars laughing at me? _She thought to herself and frowned at them in return.

* * *

The next day went by at a blur of speed and very little talking, everyone's faces were down when they set up camp that night. Even Lee's fiery spirit surrendered to the gloom of the two Hyuuga's and he didn't mention the springtime of youth once that day.

Naruto had been meaning to talk to Hinata all day but couldn't find the right words to say, his feeble attempts of conversation died out every time he ran by her. He came back from collecting wood with full intent of talking to her, but when he stacked the wood next to the fire he saw her in her sleeping bag and sighed. "I'll take first watch" he told Lee who nodded gloomily and dropped on top of his things, not even getting inside the sleeping bag.

Hinata was hoping he would see her sleeping and come join her, but when she heard him taking the first watch her heart sighed for her. _Why doesn't he pay any attention to me? _She thought quite selfishly, but she had every right to be selfish, she was under so much stress all day long, all she wanted from him was a hug, a kiss… maybe a bit more.

They both looked up at the stars and frowned.

* * *

"Hey! Everyone! Come here!" Lee shouted from the left "I think I found something!" Everyone stopped in their tracks and jumped to Lee's location.

Neji got there first, "What is it?"

Lee pointed at the ground, there were wheel tracks there, along them were footprints, all heading in the direction of Konoha.

They followed the tracks for what felt like ages to Hinata, finally they came to a clearing and the Hyuuga's stopped, everyone bumping into them.

"What is it?" Naruto jumped next to Neji and gasped, the blood was gone from his face and his eyes seemed so wide that they could swallow him whole. Beside him Hinata had the same expression, and then she screamed.

They were at the entrance of a forest clearing, so wide that it looked to Naruto like it was as large as Konoha, it was obviously not as wide a week ago, still green trees were torn from the roots everywhere for as far as the eye could see. Naruto then looked straight ahead and then realized why Hinata was screaming.

Dead bodies were sprawled about everywhere, some with terrible wounds on them and some didn't even look like humans, more like bleeding lumps of flesh. The sight was too awful for Ten-Ten, who keeled over, puking her guts out.

Naruto couldn't believe what he was seeing, he wouldn't believe it, no one could do such a thing. Even the little kids were murdered brutally, their parents bodies in front of them, as if trying to protect them from whatever destroyed the entire Hyuuga clan.

"Who… what… did this?" Sakura mumbled, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Hinata was still screaming, she ran over to the bodies, turning them over. Friends here, a maid there, everywhere she turned were the people that she grew up with, the very center of her life, murdered cold-heartedly.

Hinata could faint from the smallest of remarks, from the tiniest of gestures, but sweet oblivion wouldn't come now, she had to stand there and watch the people she loved most in the world dead, all of them with looks of horror in their eyes, what could have possibly been terrifying enough to scare the proud Hyuuga clan?

And in front of everyone, in the front line she saw it, a lone tree stood in the middle of the clearing, they approached it slowly, trying to understand what they were seeing, trying to comprehend the horror.

A body was nailed to the center of the tree, the entire trunk was soaked in blood. In front of the body was the mangled body of Hyuuga Hiashi, long claw marks ran across his back, his hand reached out even in death, trying to stop whoever did this from nailing the innocent girl to the tree.

Hinata dropped to her knees, her eyes transfixed to the body nailed to the tree, shaking her head from side to side violently, trying to banish the tree from her eyes, to make it not real. She opened her mouth, at first to gasp with horror, then she screamed, the longest and most blood chilling scream either of them has ever heard. Neji dropped to the ground with the roar of a wounded tiger, punching the grass until his knuckles bled and he couldn't lift his hands anymore, then he just lay there, crying and sobbing beside his screaming cousin.

No one made any move to comfort either of them, no one could even move, no one thought they ever could again.

To the tree was nailed the body of Hyuuga Hanabi, her head slumped forward and her hair covered her face, blood still dripped slowly from her face and from the nails that held her in place all over her body. Nobody wanted to see, but everyone could, that the blood was dripping from her eye sockets, her eyes were ripped out and her entire body was covered in claw marks.

To her chest was nailed a tiny note, written in purple ink, it said:

**Seek the truth in the forest of lies**

**Shiver at the peeks of the lowest valley**

**Drown in the driest of deserts**

**In order to save the world, would you sacrifice yourself?**

Hinata still didn't stop screaming.


	6. Premonition

A\N: Sorry this one took so long... had some school issues.

If anyone wants to be a beta-reader please contact me

And PLEASE leave reviews. Thank you

* * *

Hinata finally stopped screaming, her silence was more awful than any other voice she could produce. A cold chill emitted from her that made anyone who looked at her shiver.

Neji ran off into the woods with Ten-Ten after him, Naruto thought he could see tears running down the prodigy's face and understood his need to be alone.

Lee also slumped into the woods, a crash came from his direction every now and then.

Sakura had gone to "make camp" or something like that; her voice was too muffled behind her handkerchief and had a dead quality to it.

So Naruto was left alone in the midst of the carnage with the silent Hyuuga, after thinking of nothing to say he got up and started digging graves in the far side of the clearing, sniffing his nose occasionally.

"What are you doing?" He didn't recognize the voice so he turned rapidly and assumed his fighting stance, but it was just Hinata, still crouching beneath the body of her sister.

"I'm just digging graves…" Naruto could barely bring himself to utter the words, this whole thing was way too much for him to handle, his brain was numb and cold.

"You're just digging graves…" She repeated, her voice scared Naruto, it had a strange echo, like it was coming from the far side of a cave.

"You're just digging graves to hide my family? To deny what has happened to them?"

Naruto blinked, "no… not at all…"

"Then what is it?" She got up, fire in her eyes "why not just leave them here for everyone to see? Or is that disturbing you? Is it? Do you feel… uncomfortable?"

Naruto could only gape at her, he didn't understand at all what she was saying, this was not the Hinata he knew.

"Hinata… I…"

"What?" She cocked her head to the side, never stopping to advance towards him "what are you gonna say? That you understand me?"

"No, I couldn't possibly – "

"What could you, who had no family in the first place, what could you possibly know about how I feel?!"

Naruto heard the words from very far away, even though Hinata was now inches from his face, her red eyes were huge and wet, tears were staining his clothes, not just her tears.

"You don't know anything about how I feel!" She shouted in his face and ran away.

Her words pierced Naruto's heart like a thousand needles, he had a sudden flashback of a waterfall and a handsome, dark-haired boy saying those exact same words to him before shoving him from the cliff. Only that this time he wished he was being pummeled like last time.

It would still hurt him if Neji or any of the others would've told him that, but the fact that it was the girl he loved… the blonde burst into sobs and sank to his knees, forgetting about graves and death and the world. Only her face and her words were burned into his mind.

* * *

That night no one said anything at the camp. Neji was still missing and Ten-Ten and Lee were searching for him. Naruto and Sakura sat at opposite sides of the fire, not saying anything but shooting nervous glances at Hinata from time to time. She hasn't said a thing since her outburst earlier and neither of them could think of anything to say to her.

Wiping the last of her tears, Sakura went to her sleeping bag and stared at it for a while. Eventually she sprawled on top of it and lay there, rigid as a board, eyes closed.

Naruto sighed, his mind still wouldn't understand all that's happened that day. He was in a kind of a weird serenity, the quiet before the storm he guessed and just waited for the inevitable. He thought of Hinata, and what he could possibly say to her to make her forgive him.

* * *

"Naruto."

Nothing could've surprised the blonde more, he jumped back, a kunai in his hand, looking for whoever called his name. He wouldn't have jumped so badly if the voice came from the camp area, but it came from the woods, and it wasn't anyone he knew.

His first instinct was to shout out "who is it?" but his ninja training suppressed that immediately and he stealthily moved into the woods, sending two bunshins to the left and the right in such speed that no one but himself could have known it.

He came upon a clearing which he did not remember seeing when he scouted the area before, the grip on his kunai tightened. In the middle of the clearing stood a man, wearing a shiny white suite, he had long brown hair and a pair of spectacles was perched on his nose. He looked calmly at Naruto and beckoned him to come closer.

"Come now, I won't bite." He said, a smile crept up his cheeks; it was a pleasant smile, warm and glowing. It did not reflect in his eyes though, the hard brown eyes remained cold.

"But I will." Naruto sneered as the two bunshins dropped silently from the trees behind the man. He chuckled and waved his left hand, which was covered with a tight white glove, like he was trying to shoo a fly. An immense shockwave burst out from his hand and the bunshins exploded into clouds of white smoke.

"Come now, Naruto, I only want to have a friendly conversation." He smiled again and pointed at a comfortable looking rock in front of him. This time Naruto was sure, that rock was NOT there a second ago.

"How did you do that?" He looked suspiciously at the rock, as if it was about to explode.

"Do what? Please sit, we have lots to talk about and very little time."

Naruto sat down, the kunai still in his hand and he looked at this strange man in his shining suite.

"Naruto, I am your father."

The blonde's kunai fell to the ground, along with his mouth, his eyes flared open, could this really be?

"Just kidding!" the suited man waved his hands and burst into fits of laughter, growing even louder when Naruto's eyes widened even more and his jaw fell another inch or so.

"God, you're uptight, loosen up will ya? My name is Kamiya and I am NOT your father."

Naruto just stared blankly at this Kamiya guy, who was still chuckling and wiping tears from his eyes, was this guy for real?

"And now let's get down to business, as I have already said, we have very little time, they're about to move any moment now."

"Who's going to move?" Naruto immediately asked.

"That's the least of your worries right now, fox-boy, listen to me now. In one year from now, Akatsuki will unleash a beast upon this world whose force you can't even imagine, I'm here to prevent this from happening, and you're going to help me." Kamiya leaned against a tree and gave Naruto a very serious glare, this time he wasn't kidding around.

"Why should I help you? Who are you anyway?"

"Who am I is none of your concern, and as to your first question, if you don't want to see your friends die a most horrible death, you will help me."

Naruto got up, the kunai back in his hand "if you even lay one finger on them –"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch… I'm not going to hurt them… the whole world will suffer that fate if you don't stop Akatsuki from unleashing said beastie."

Naruto sat down again, looking at this man in a bit different light, maybe he should listen to what he had to say after all.

"That's right. Now, here's what's going to happen."

* * *

_Hinata was walking through the forest, shadows reaching out to get her, she evaded them and started to run. The faster she ran the more shadows were chasing her, they were tearing at her clothes and scratching her skin. She ran and she ran, her lungs were burning and there was a sharp pain in her side. She looked around at the shadows and saw that they had big lavender eyes… just like hers._

_She tripped and fell to her knees, she closed her eyes and waited for the shadows to finish the job, only that they didn't. She looked up and saw a familiar looking blonde ninja, he was offering her his hand, a large grin all over his goofy face._

_"Naruto!" she called and grabbed his hand, which clawed into hers a bit too much than what was necessary._

_"Naruto… you're hurting me." She noticed that his nails were much longer than normal, they were digging into her flesh rather painfully._

_Hinata looked up at him, the smile was still there, but it was not the goofy grin anymore, it was an evil sneer. It looked like fangs were coming out of his mouth, his eyes were blood red and he let out a massive roar as he bit into the tender skin of her throat –_

* * *

Hinata woke up with a start, soaked with cold sweat and breathing hard. She was expecting nightmares, but nothing like that. She doubted she could go back to sleep now.

Hinata looked around, she didn't see anyone watching, did Naruto fall asleep on guard again?

She stood up on her blankets, Sakura was shifting and murmuring in her sleep beside her, Neji and the others still didn't come back, and where was the blonde?

She saw footprints leading away into the trees and followed them, all anger replaced with worry. Naruto usually made a lot of noise when he fought, so it should've woken her up. And if someone kidnapped him…

It didn't take long until she heard it, sobs and quiet talking coming from a nearby place. She sprinted in that direction and skidded to a halt just outside a clearing, in the center sat Naruto, crying into his hands. She's never seen him like this, he looked so much different than the strong and confident Naruto she was used to seeing.

She looked around for the person he was talking to but saw nothing except a strange white light just a few paces from Naruto. She was just about to call him when he talked.

"And…" he hiccoughed "and if I do it… would it save them? Will they be alright?" He looked as if he was listening to someone talking and then got angry. "What do you mean 'define alright'?! I want you to promise me that they'll be OK."

He listened some more to whoever was talking and then nodded, "fine… I understand… you have my word… do whatever you want with them, as long as she'll be alright." He was quiet for a few moments and then nodded again "yes… I know. But I don't care, even if… what?"

Naruto's eyes flared open and he turned around just in time to see Hinata's worried face disappear behind a tree. The white light vanished and she heard him get up and walk towards her.

"Hinata… I…"

"Who were you talking to?" she asked him coldly. She sensed that he was right beside her but she didn't turn to face him.

"I…"

Hearing the number one most hyper-active ninja in the world talking like this was too strange for Hinata so she slowly turned around to face him.

What she didn't expect to see were tears falling from his big, blue eyes. He stood there and stared at her, tears running down the side of his face and falling to the ground.

Something boiled inside Hinata, the same thing that erupted this afternoon when she snapped at him.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU CRYING?! WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO BE SO SAD LIKE THIS?! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN SHED TEARS SO FREELY OVER YOUR STUPID LITTLE PROBLEMS?!"

A voice not her own, a language she's never used, and a tone that was as far away from her as possible. Hinata stood there and yelled horrible things at the one person she loved the most in the world, the one person she needed more than anything right now, and the one person that probably hated her right now at least as much as she hated herself.

His arms wrapped themselves around her so suddenly that she kept on screaming even when his face was inches from her own.

"Let me go! Leave me alone!" She shouted and tried to push him away, but he was stronger and wouldn't let go and eventually she stopped struggling. Her hands grabbed his back and pressed him against her with all the force she could muster, and he just tightened his grip on her.

Before she knew it, the tears came, and they didn't stop. Hinata stood there and cried into his shoulder, it could have been for all eternity for all she knew. The pain for her family, the hate for her self, and the love for him, all absorbed by his strong arms and broad shoulders.

"Hinata," he whispered softly in her ear "I have no words of comfort that can ease your pain, I have no wise sayings that can change your thinking. All I have to offer you is my love, and I hope that even though you might not return it, you will accept it and use it as you wish."

"Baka," she lifted her head and looked in his bloodshot eyes "that's all I ever wanted. And as for returning your love, if that's what I can do to make you forgive me, I'll do it for ever… until you won't hate me anymore. Just don't ever let me go."

He smiled and kissed her, a long and deep kiss that made both their hearts feel lighter "deal."

* * *

Hinata fell asleep against his chest, the constant rising soothing her. Naruto leaned against a tree and cradled her in his arms, she was still clutching his shirt even as sun's first rays burst through the canopy and lit her love's big blue eyes, which didn't close that night. And her nightmares seemed to be afraid of those eyes, since they never came back that night.

He kissed her hair and tightened his grip on her.

"I won't ever let you go."


	7. Man in a tank

A\N: I'm so sorry that this episode took so long. But please don't abandon this story, I haven't given up on it and I have big plans for it.

If you like SasuNaru or dramatic fics please check out my new fic.

And please leave reviews.

* * *

_"So, my dear, are we still playing that little game of yours?"_

_She pants a little more than last time as she gives me her answer, blood runs slowly from her mouth down her chin as she talks and I think I saw a tooth fly out, but it could be my imagination._

_"Fuck you. I'll never tell you anything."_

_I chuckle and shake my head as I mix different bottles that stand on my desk, some glow a bright red and some acid green. I pick up one filled with a nasty looking black liquid and pour some of it to the bowl in front of me._

_I notice that her breathing has quickened and become deeper, she must have noticed what I'm doing and is trying to get ready for what's coming. I chuckle again, foolish girl._

_I finish mixing the ingredients in slow, clock-wise circular motions and pour the now bright blue liquid into an available syringe. I take a deep breath and turn around to face my prisoner._

_As always, her beauty takes my breath away. Her flame colored hair is sticking to the sides of her body, which is completely covered in sweat, her perfect body, bound in iron wire to the wall by the arms and legs._

_No words short of perfection can describe that body. Her carved legs are long and seductive, my gaze continues upwards to her well built abdomen and her big, round breasts who are also glistening with sweat. _

_But her face, such a could make angels cry; the curve on her lips just beginning to be bit, and those rosy cheeks provide the perfect background for her huge, sapphire eyes._

_"What are you staring at, dumbass?" _

_And of course, there's that ever so attractive attitude._

_"Just admiring one of nature's most wasted works of art." I retort as I pick a spot on her arm._

_"What'cha got there, another one of your party drugs?"_

_I chuckle again, this woman never loses her nerve, and that's what I admire about her._

_"I'm afraid your not going to any parties soon, unless you give me what I want. Where is Minato?"_

_She smiles, for a second I forget where I am and just stop to be mesmerized by that perfect smile. And then she spits in my face._

_I stick the needle in her arm and shake my head again, such a waste._

_I take a few steps back and check my watch, if I mixed it correctly I should see results in about… 3… 2… 1…_

_It starts from the head, she jerks that angelic head to the left, what parts of her hair that are not stuck to her body fly to the left immediately. Her head then spasms all the way to the other side, where it shoots right back to the left._

_Other parts of her body begin to spasm as the poison spreads through her entire system, her shoulders shake and her breasts vibrate all over the place. Next, her legs shake and she opens them as wide as she can in an attempt to ease the pain, a fruitless attempt, of course._

_The spasms grow worse and worse until she finally breaks and screams, she screams so loud that the tubes on my desk vibrate. I'd be afraid that she'll wake the students who are staying on level above us, but they must have gotten used to the noise by now._

_She screams, she screams so hard that her throat tears and blood shoots from her mouth but still she screams. She screams so long that she runs out of air but her scream just silenced, and got a hell of a lot more terrifying to behold._

_Her eyes roll around in their sockets as every muscle in her body spasms in an effort to escape, a fruitless effort, of course. _

_I check my watch, still not enough, and I hope my drug won't fail me._

_An entire minute passed and she is now fighting against the thin iron wires binding her, which just cuts her arms and legs and increases her pain further. The floor beneath her is now a puddle of blood and little waves erupt every time she bangs her head against the wall out of desperation._

_I check my watch again, now might be a good time to stop, though I was promised that it would take at least five minutes until it kills her, two is more than enough, and the laboratory is really starting to get dirty._

_I get closer and start to perform the jutsu that would end her agony, her left eye pops in the middle and blood sprays everywhere._

_I finish the seals and press my hands against her stomach, feeling her internal organs begin to stiffen and bleed. The vibrating stops and she instantly slumps against the wires, tears from one way mixes with the blood from the other one as they slid down her face and fall to the floor._

_I perform a basic healing jutsu and stop the bleeding, she's in no condition to talk now, so I'll question her further later and let her rest for a while._

_Time to look at the mess, the floor is completely red and there are cracks in the wall where she banged her head over and over. But the most horrifying of all this…_

_"I've got blood all over my new white suit!"_

* * *

He knew his world like the back of his hand, every corner and every spin. The 4 great white walls were the boundaries of his swimming quarters and he would sometimes enjoy himself by just swimming to one of them in great speed and then kick himself far away from it the opposite wall.

Though he's lived there for a very long time, he still had new things to discover each and every day. Every "dawn" was a new adventure for him as he would swim around his world in search of the new things that his capturer had placed there. Sometimes it would be a shiny stone to play with and sometimes it was some leftover technological stuff that he could dissemble.

Despite the legends about him, he was nothing more than a simple man who liked to swim around his world and play with shiny rocks. At least here there were no wars, there was no killing.

* * *

But one day, something disrupted his peaceful swimming; a great crack appeared on the north wall. He swam to it as fast as he could, maybe something broke his world. When he approached the wall he saw it, a great, snake like eye was looking at him through the crack. When it saw him, the eye withdrew and the wall shattered. The water flooded out of the world and everything was washed out of it.

"Good morning, Hikaru – sama." A soft, but a bit shaky, voice was the first thing he heard after being washed out of the tank. He closed his eyes and his body built itself as he looked around at the man who spoke.

"Orochimaru – kun." He said the moment he had a mouth, his closed eyes right on the snake – like man's face, as if he could see him. And he probably could, from little Orochimaru knew about him.

"Kun? Show some respect to Orochimaru – sama!" a voice came from the corner.

Hikaru slowly turned his head towards Kabuto, the moment his closed eyes were on his, Kabuto felt like he was being suffocated, he pressed his hands to his throat. He's never heard of this kind of jutsu.

"Speak when spoken to, punk." Hikaru waved his hand and Kabuto crashed into the wall, and didn't get up.

Hikaru's body finally finished pulling itself together, now his long, red hair was flowing down his skinny, woman like body. A long scar ran down his thin, pale face, but his eyes were still closed.

If he wasn't naked I would be sure he was a girl, thought Orochimaru, who didn't even blink when his apprentice slammed quite painfully against the wall.

The naked man turned his face to "look" at the Snake Sannin again.

"What have you awakened me for?" Orochimaru just noticed that even his voice was quite girly, was this really a man?

But he knew that he was and he also knew how deadly this man was, and that was why he didn't stop him from hurting his apprentice.

"I have something I want to ask of you." He hissed in return.

"That's not even worth stating, since you wouldn't have called me any other reason, would you?" these young people… always wasting time and words, all Hikaru wanted to do was to go back to sleep.

Orochimaru, familiar with the man's short temper, wasted no more time in explaining his plan.

"So just bring you this kid? And then I could go back to sleep?" Hikaru didn't even wait for an answer, he just left the room, eyes still closed.

On his way out he passed by a kid whom he's never seen before, the kid's hand was outstretched and it looked like he was waiting for him to take the package he held.

Their shoulders brushed as Hikaru took the package and left, Sasuke could hear him sniff and thought he heard him say something like "so he has one good apprentice after all… maybe too good," but paid it no attention.

* * *

Sasuke ignored Kabuto's body on the floor and walked straight to Orochimaru, who seemed to be lost in thought.

Sasuke's steps were slow and nonchalant, as if he owned everything he saw, and indeed that was what he thought.

In the past 3 years, Sasuke had grown even more than he expected, he was much taller now and his muscles have evolved to his liking. He was much more powerful now and he knew it, probably even more powerful than Orochimaru.

A long fingered hand ran through his hair as his handsome face was twisted by a scowl, he did not like to be kept waiting.

Orochimaru finally recognized his presence and looked at his soon – to –be body. Sasuke sure has become a good looking man, he hasn't seen him for just a month but already he was taken back by his beauty, how would he like to posses this body… soon… very soon.

"What is it, Sasuke – Kun?" He smiled a force smile as he said that.

"Don't kun me. And you promised that you will let me go to look for naruto."

Orochimaru frowned, why was this boy so obsessed with that jinchuuriki?

"There's no need for you to go search for him. I have… someone working on it. You just focus on your training."

"I'm tired of training, it's time to put all I've learn to use. And you can't stop me forever." Sasuke spat at him and left the room.

Orochimaru shook his head, that boy was nothing but trouble. Good thing he'll be gone soon.

* * *

Orochimaru put kabuto gently on his bed and looked at him, he looked so peaceful when he was unconscious.

He bent down and planted a chakra loaded kiss on his apprentice's forehead.

Kabuto woke up with a start and a kunai flashed in his hand "Orochimaru-sama!" he shouted.

"Shush now… it's alright, he's gone." The snake Sannin patted his apprentice's head soothingly and kabuto crashed on the bed.

"Who… what… is that?" he whispered.

"You are probably to young to have heard the stories about him…" Orochimaru paced the small space between kabuto's bed and the wall.

"He is Hitokkiri Hikaru, no one knows too much about him, only that he took place in every shinobi war since the days of the first ninja… and he has never been defeated."

Kabuto swallowed loudly "then how has he come to be here?"

Orochimaru stared at the wall and rubbed his left shoulder absent-mindedly "I… made a deal with him… but that is of no importance right now, you should rest now." And he cast a genjutsu on kabuto before he could resist.

"You should rest now… the time of trial is soon to come."

* * *

A long distance from there, naruto woke up from a very strange dream about a woman who was being tortured and a man in a white coat.

And walking calmly between the trees, admiring the birds chirping happily in the tree tops and all other life forms in the forest, was the most feared shinobi alive.

And his closed eyes were set on Naruto.

* * *

A\N: I once again ask you to leave me your reviews, it's really important for me to know what you guys think...

Also, I know where you live.


	8. Lights and Shadows

It's been ages huh?

I'm so sorry that I vanished like that, I've been going through a lot of personal issues and school and whatnot...

But I'm back :P and I'm still planning on finishing this baby, I have a really good plan for this story.

If it takes me a while to update I apologize, but rest assured that I will not abandon this fic.

Enjoy :P

* * *

"Now what?" Neji stared at everyone, his body language saying nothing but hate, but his eyes were completely dead.

Lee and Ten-Ten chased after him for two whole days, finally catching him while he was pulverizing a tree until it was nothing more than a pile of splinters. Lee had to beat him over the head with a log and then carry him back to camp while he was unconscious.

"I don't know, what do we do now?" Lee didn't even get up from the log he was sitting on. His head was buried in his hands, showing none of his usual good mood and fiery spirit.

They were all shaken up by the sight they have seen in the clearing, the murder of the entire Hyuuga clan left a deep impact on them all. Especially on Neji and Hinata, but at least she had Naruto to comfort her. Ten-Ten put her hand on Neji's shoulder, but he just shrugged her off angrily and moved to stand at the other side of camp.

"We should probably get back to the village and tell Tsunade, so she could investigate this." Sakura kicked at a random sleeping bag every now and then as she walked around the fire.

Hinata, who stood by Naruto, leaning on his shoulder, stood up straight and walked to the center of the camp. Sakura stopped her pacing and stared at her with surprise, so did everyone else. Hinata had a look in her eyes that no one has seen before, a look of self-confidence and determination. She wiped her tears and said with a strong voice "no, we won't go back to the village. We'll find the killer ourselves, and get revenge."

The entire camp was in shock, no one would have ever expected Hinata to talk about hunting and revenge. Naruto's shoulders slumped against the tree and he covered his eyes with his hands.

"What are you talking about? We couldn't possibly find whoever did this, and we certainly stand no chance against them. Since they could… and we're…" Sakura choked with tears and Ten-Ten took off where she left "look, we might be pretty decent ninjas, but this is really a case for ANBU. We have to go back."

Hinata stomped the ground and yelled "it would take us at least two days to get back in the village, it would take at least two days for ANBU to get here and a few more days until they find a hint, since it would probably disappear by then. This…" she struggled with herself not to sob, though the tears were flowing unchecked down her face. "This was done no more than a few days ago, we'll have a better chance to finding whoever did this than ANBU since they must have gotten more than a couple of miles between us and them. Think about how far the killers could get in a week."

Everyone still looked unsure so she said "we can at least find where they're hiding and then call ANBU. Then we won't get in trouble…" she said that last bit in a pleading tone and looked at her cousin, hoping for support. He just stood there and stared at the ground with dead eyes.

"I agree with her." Naruto pushed himself from the tree and took Hinata's hand in his own, gripping her tightly. "The least we could do is find their trail before it gets cold, save ANBU some time." Lee nodded at looked up at them, his eyes burning with hate.

Ten-Ten sighed and nodded too, Sakura began packing their gear and Neji still didn't move, he was staring at the ground and mumbling to himself.

* * *

The thought of going back to that place didn't seat well with any of them, but they had to start searching from there. They reached the clearing and covered their noses, the stench of death was everywhere and it was suffocating to breath. They split up and searched around the clearing for hints.

It wasn't long before Ten-Ten called for them, she was pointing at the ground were claw marks were clearly visible and they were leading deep into the forest, going south.

Sakura sent a message to Tsunade via a frog that Naruto summoned "so they would at least get a proper burial." Sakura choked on her tears as she said it and Lee gripped her shoulder tightly.

They were following the path for a few hours when the claw trail suddenly vanished, they all stopped and looked around them. For some reason no one remembered where they came from and where they were.

"Er… where the hell did we go?" Naruto asked and looked around, everything looked exactly the same, trees and trees everywhere he looked.

"Well… we were definitely going south… and when we left Konoha we were going east... we were running at a speed of about…" Ten-Ten spread a map on the ground and mumbled, calculating where they were.

She stopped and looked up at them, a look of confusion in her brown eyes.

"What?" Neji growled at her and she flinched.

"Well… according to the map… we should be around… here." She pointed at a big brown spot on the map. "That's a barren land, there shouldn't be a forest here."

Lee pointed on his map "there's a mountain in mine."

Hinata drew her map and ran her finger across it "t-t-there's a lake in m-mine…"

Everybody looked around them, suddenly the forest was full of sounds of creaking, like the trees were moving. Hinata took a step back, her coat got caught in a branch and she screamed. She pushed Naruto out of her way when she tried to escape, he bumped into Ten-Ten and she fell down.

They were all pushing and shoving each other for reasons they didn't quite understand. The panic grew and soon they were almost fighting each other, someone stepped on a twig and it snapped, the sound made the girls scream and run in different directions. Naruto ran after Hinata and Lee ran after Sakura.

Naruto ran and ran and ran, not knowing what was the source of this panic that gripped him but knowing that he couldn't stop running or else something bad would happen to him. Suddenly he saw a bright light to his left and immediately ran in that direction, not thinking for one second about it.

He reached the light and saw Hinata sitting next to a tree, holding a flashlight. Naruto smiled and made a move towards her, she pointed the flashlight into his eyes and he was blinded, he raised his hands to protect his eyes. "What are you doing Hina-" before he could finish the sentence something hit him in the stomach, he flew back and slammed into a tree.

He looked up and saw Hinata in her fighting stance, he looked around her when the light was in his eyes again. He was hit again, this time something hit him square in the face.

Stars burst in his eyes and he fell to his knees, he heard laughing and saw Hinata standing a few feet away from him and laughing. Could it be that she attacked him?

"Hinata, did you-?" the light was in his eyes again and this time he dove to the right, he heard something hit the ground where he was just a second ago. This couldn't be Hinata, she would never attack him. So it must be…

Naruto drew a kunai and charged straight at Hinata, she screamed and kicked at him. The kick hit him in the jaw and a big cloud of smoke exploded where the bunshin was. The real Naruto came from behind Hinata and tackled her to the ground, facing the dirt.

He held her head, not letting her escape, she struggled but Naruto held her firmly, tears in his eyes. It hurt him so much to hurt anything that looked like Hinata, even if it wasn't really her. Suddenly light burst in front of his eyes again. He let go of Hinata and jumped back. When his vision was back to normal Hinata was on her feet, breathing heavily and crying. It almost looked just like her, but Naruto wouldn't be fooled.

* * *

Hinata ran through the forest, running away from the danger she was sure was chasing her. She ran until she heard nothing behind her, she looked around and when she saw nothing that could help her find out where she were she remembered that somebody must be looking for her. She sat down on the ground and lighted a flashlight, waiting for someone to find her. She hoped it would be Naruto, she could really use a shoulder to cry on right now, she still could not believe what had happened and she would probably be just like Neji right now if it weren't for her blonde lover.

Naruto crashed through the trees in front of her, she smiled and playfully shined the flashlight in his eyes. He suddenly clinched in pain as if someone hit him, she jumped on her feet and searched for whatever it was in the trees.

Suddenly Naruto fell to his knees, Hinata laughed, he bend over like that so that the crack of his bottom could be seen clearly from the top of his pants.

He jumped to his right, and Hinata saw something slamming into the ground where his head was, it looked like it came from the trees, she scanned the upper branches and was about to ask Naruto if she should activate her Byakugan when she saw him rushing at her with a kunai in his hands. Her ninja instincts reacted automatically and she kicked him hard. He burst into a cloud of smoke, a bunshin?

Something caught her from behind and she fell down, it pressed her head hard into the ground and she couldn't breath. She was starting to lose consciousness when suddenly she was free. She jumped to her feet and turned around, she saw Naruto looking at her with death in his eyes.

"What…?" she sobbed, tears clouding her vision. She saw a yellow flash rushing her way and she let out another kick.

In the upper tree branches a shadow chuckled and whispered "welcome, to the Forest of Lies. Will you find the truth… or die?"

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A/N: Please review :P it could really help me with the next chapters if you tell me what you think.


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